Wooden Wars: Kublacon Part 1

“Remember, the ball has to bounce at least once in order to be in play...”

~ Some deucedly clever fellow

A bird's eye view of the battle field.

KublaCon was last weekend, something I have been gearing up for for about 6 months. It's truly my favorite west coast convention. Great staff, family oriented, decent dealer's room (...for west coast conventions), lots of painting seminars and an egalitarian painting competition, and, last but not least, held in a great hotel.

This year I ran three large Wooden Wars games in the grand foyer of the hotel. This put me smack dab in the middle of the main pass through, registration, concession stands and the dealers room.  A real plum location with lots of natural light.  I want to give a shout-out again to the staff of KublaCon, who really were helpful  and courteous, and just plain care about folks having a good time. That we did!

As I said, I ran three games, all Napoleonic in nature. I have tons of pictures to still go through, so I'm going to break it up into battles and see how that goes.  Before I do, I also want to thank all the parents who played with their children in the games, or were trusting enough to allow them to come play on their own. And for many of you to say, without a blink of the ey,e that it was okay to post pics of your young commanders.  As I didn't get to speak with all of you, thank you for indulging me, and please contact me if you have any issues. I'm a dad, I totally will get it. 

Battle for Lay Haye Block 

 The first two battles were centered around Lay Haye Block, a strategic location in the Wooden Wars world. As usual, the battle could be won by either knocking over all of your opponent's forces (nothing dies in Wooden Wars, it just gets knocked over) or by capturing their flag - which is how it usually goes.

Cavalry moves into position. Note the activation marker behind it.

Red army and commanders take fire from a gun battery

Cavalry charged and broke a square, only to be counter charged and knocked over.
Meanwhile Grenadiers hold the building.

Another view of the carnage, pre counter charge

La Haye Block.
Cavalry can move through the courtyard but cannot hold the building.

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The intrepid Cavalry captain breaks through the Blue armies lines and captures the flag!
Here he is showing off his well earned medal.

Secondary objectives are the strategic points on the battlefield, such as the block buildings. You will note that each building has a medal placed on or in it. The player who's troops control a building at the end of the battle gets to keep the medal, even if their side did not win. Believe you me, these were heavily contested areas, which provided lots of excitement.  

The Face of Battle

As I went through the photos of the games, one thing really stood out. The total concentration or full-on emotions on the faces of the players. I could not but post a few here. This is really the stuff that makes a designer cum toy maker feel like something is going right. Yeah, I'm a bit teary eyed, so what. 

Seriously, not posed!

Many faces of battle

Sherriff Rick took a break from clobbering zombies and played WWS.

Captain R. One of my favorite players of the convention!

The face is on the ball. Nuff' said.

Special Guest Star Appearance

During the game I looked up to see a fellow snapping pics, wearing a Wargames Illustrated shirt. I sent my ADC to investigate, and the report came back that it was indeed the esteemed Dave Taylor, who's paintingblog I have been following  for quite a while. We got to chatting, and on top of being an ace painter, Dave is really a nice guy, so I let him play with my toys.  Come to find out, he's really rather good with a grand battery of 4 guns.  Stay tuned for more on the Wargames Illustrated front, as I have re-upped my promise to get an article to them soon. 

Captain T. announces his target. Bets may or may not have been placed...

Oh the Woodmanity!

Okay, that's more than enough for now - next time more battle shots and close up troop reviews.